January 31, 2019

I love the deep saturated blue colors of this April Cornell tablecloth.

I decided to go heavy on the blues with my dishware as well!

I have a handful of Polish Pottery pieces that I brought to the table. Salt and Pepper shakers and a creamer for our coffee.

Last week's tablescape florals are still hanging on but I re-cut them and arranged them in this vase.

I used this "blooming flower brick" that I ordered from The Williamsburg Foundation. As you can see it has varying sized holes meant to hold larger and smaller flowers and to make arranging easier.

The roses had begun to look sad so I peeled away the outer layers that had started to brown to freshen them up. The gerber daisy is pretty much at end of life but the chrysanthemums and carnations are still doing great.

I spotted the S & P shakers while in Frankenmuth last year. I think they're really cute and unique. I used a woven mat to cluster the center arrangement pieces.

One of my first Polish Pottery pieces was this honey pot. Dan likes to use honey for his coffee instead of refined sugar these days.

I chose two of my Polish Pottery coffee mugs with similar colors. The stemware is LaRochere Napoleon Bee.

This table is a pot-pourri of products. The blue dishes came from Hobby Lobby with the name Certified Internatinal on the bottom which I layered them on my everyday white (French Countryside) Mikasa dishes.

I put a lace doily underneath and chose the galvanized tin charger to keep a casual appearance for the breakfast table.

The squared edges of the blue/white plates just happened to pair up well with the white dish design.

This is a square tablecloth with this side having a larger crocheted accent.

This would be great as a topper on a small accent table with perhaps a white table cover underneath.

We've been experiencing a great deal of harsh winter weather like a lot of other people have. It was only 7º today. We're used to lots of snow but the extra cold has made the roads more slippery. Staying indoors is the best option since you can get frostbite in a short time.

I can only stare at this and dream of spring waiting to see life emerge from the earth again!

January 29, 2019

It's been a bit messy here getting the new appliances installed. It took a while longer than I thought it would but we had to make a modification with the countertop before the new range could go in place. We had everything placed over here where the kitchen table usually is and that's how it was for about a week.

I chose a "Induction" range this time. It has the glass cook top area but the burners are induction so it's much faster than my previous radiant glass cook top unit. It also offers a convection oven which is quite a bit larger than my old one along with a warming drawer. Hoping that things will go much smoother in the future for larger dinner prep!

Though my dishwasher wasn't worn out we opted to put in a new one and sell the old one which I have done already as well as the microwave. We had them take the old range to be recycled.

Dan had to do a DIY to get the new slide in range to fit. The old range had a wider front and then it narrowed towards the back. The corian countertop had been customized to fit it but we had to cut the opening wider. It took a router, dremel and a hand saw to get it all done.

Because he couldn't get close enough to the back edge with the power tools he hand cut that last little part.

The wide backsplash/wall piece had to be removed which we didn't expect to have to do because the new microwave was a little larger. He used a series of small crow bars and screw drivers (to keep the gap) to pop it off. Thankfully it came off nicely. He cut it shorter and re-installed it after the new microwave was in place. Measure twice, cut once!

This was very heavy and turned into quite a job to get it mounted. We had a guy set to come and help but due to the severe cold weather he had some plumbing that froze and couldn't make it. This was not good since I'm not able to help lift a 75 lb. piece like this and hold it up while he installed it. Through his ingenuity, a series of boards and blocks and a step ladder he got it in there!

The new microwave also offers the convection option so I'm hoping if I need additional baking space when we do larger dinners it will come in handy.

Isn't my little galley kitchen lovely! Everything from under the sink and tools spread all over. 😲 Thankfully Dan is capable of doing these things but I think there were a few moments he wished he had someone else doing it! I am the official gopher...I go for this and go for that when he needs things!

My other dishwasher was quiet but this one is amazingly quiet. Now we have to figure out how to get the edge of the cabinet door refinished. I never noticed how worn it was until we did this appliance swap.

The induction cooking part is really interesting. I equate it to using gas because you have a very fast heating source and when you turn the burner off it quits immediately like gas. The only noticeable heat where the burners are is from the pan so it cools off much more quickly than the conventional radiant burners did. I'm really happy we were able to make this change.

Thankfully my kitchen is back to normal now!

I clipped this from a newspaper back in 1980 and we've kept it ever since. It represents us well!

January 23, 2019

Starting with this ruby glass painted rose bowl I stuffed it full with a floral bouquet I purchased from Costco. I was inspired to do something with fresh flowers after seeing a few recent blog posts showing beautiful arrangements.

I always admired this rose bowl and after Dan's mother passed it was returned to us.

My parents had gifted his parents with this for their 40th Wedding Anniversary so it represents a lot of sentiment.

While visiting Pam at Everyday Living I was admiring her pretty blue dining room walls and was inspired to use something blue for my tablescape.

I rummaged through and found these china dishes in my dish closet and they had just the right colors. The blue dinner plate is a melamine pattern from Lenox and the white chargers are from Pier 1. The charges are such a versatile piece to have. I found a deep red napkin and used some silver napkin rings from Pottery Barn. The silverware is called Baroque but right after I got them they were no longer availabe. I never had a manufacturers name.

January 10, 2019

Imagine a day spent out on the slopes, cross country skiing or even just playing in the snow.

Coming into a warm meal and a cozy table to dine it would make the day perfect!

A Christmas gift from my hubby was a German Pyramid. I've have wanted one for a long time and found this on one of our visits to Frankenmuth, MI at the Frankenmuth Clock shop. It's definitely a spot to visit loaded with black forest cuckoo clocks (some extremely elaborate), grandfather clocks, nutcrackers, pyramids and so much more.

Each side has a different scene and the center spins around. I've included a video of it located further down in the post.

If you aren't famliar with these the little bit of heat generated from the tealite candles causes the top part to start turning.

My vision for this tablescape was with an "alpine" kind of look.

I used my galvanized tin chargers to separate the red found in the buffalo plaid dishes from the red placemats. I chose the napkins to pull on the colors from the salad plate. The napkin rings have an aged look like the accent on the flatware.

Placemats are from Juliska (found on one of their sales).

The little black table has been in this corner for the holidays and I chose to leave it here for now. I brought out the lantern box I got from Pier 1 a couple of years ago. I did a post last year showing it in more depth that you can see "here".

I put the black and white dishes from Pier 1 back up and added the dishes with the pine cones that I've used a few times. I wanted to depict a winter feel to the plate rack.

I'm getting a new range in the kitchen next week and it will have a warming drawer so I rearranged some pots and pans and decided to bring out my larger pots and stage them on the etagere.

It's a more utilitarian look but it helped solve a storage issue for me.

ABOUT ME

Welcome to Home and Gardening With Liz. I have combined my previous blogs “Infuse With Liz” and “Sit With Me In My Garden” into this new blog. I love interior decorating and gardening. I enjoy redefining interior spaces by moving things around and reusing decorative items already found in the home. I also enjoy creating tablescapes and an occasional crafting project. I'm so pleased you've stopped by. I invite you to follow me and I do hope you will keep coming back!
Liz